Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle

Work Experience

Hi guys, I am in year 10 and therefore I have done my work experience last week, now I know some of you may have already done your work experience and others of you may have not, so in this blog post I am going to share with you my experience and some of my top tips to help you. (Just a little note. I don’t know whether every school in the world does this but just in case you do work experience I want to give you some tips.)

(I was working in a library) When we first started hearing about work experience we had people come to our school to give us a little interview on what we liked and what we were good at and what our weaknesses were and just general life questions. Some of us dressed up in smart clothes and others of us didn’t. I must admit I was ABSOLUTLY terrified for my interview I was so nervous. This is the worst thing to do, DON’T PANIC! Before the interview we had to do a CV just to tell the interviewer a little about us. As I was panicking so much I left it in my bag so I had to rush back to the class room to get it. This just made me even more nervous. If at your school you have to do this when you do work experience I want to give you some tips.

Don’t panic, its just like speaking to a friend, the interviewer may seem intimidating, but trust me, they are just there to listen to you.

Before you go in make sure you know your strengths and weakness, inside and outside of school, this will make your life A LOT easier and it will make you seem more confident.

You are not the only one doing the interview, everyone else in your year is as well, and your not going to be the only one that is nervous, if your friend goes before you talk to them so you know what you might get asked.

Smile. If you smile when you enter the interview you are going to come across more interested and enthusiastic than someone who is looking grumpy.

It was about three months after the interview we heard about our work experience placement we then got a sheet with the details and what we had to wear, the time of our lunch, health and safety, things we might need to do in the job etc. If our sheet said that we needed an interview we had to phone the work experience place. For me I think this was the worst because I did not know the person. I literally waited until the last minute to phone them. Anyway, once I did I had an interview, it was more of a let-me-show-you-around kind of thing where he explained to me where to go in the morning as the doors at the front would be closed and what I would be doing. It was probably less than five minutes, it was not like an interview at all. To me it was kind of like see-who-you-are-working-with. It was easy. I was less nervous about the interview than I was the phone call.

So, on Monday morning I arrived at the business at nine o’clock and I was shown were to put my bag and then I helped the manager load up the computers. I was then sent round to go and find books that people had requested, which took me FOREVER! But I done it. I was then filing books and issuing and returning books to and from customers. To be honest Monday and Tuesday I really hated it but then for the rest of the week I really enjoyed it, even though I was doing EXACTLY the same thing I had done the first two days. I actually really enjoyed work experience and I enjoyed it so much that I volunteered to help out on Saturday! I am really going to miss working there, however, I don’t think I will be working in a library as a full time job as I actually had no idea what I was doing!

Top Tips

Always go to the business smiling. It will make you seem more friendly and as if you actually want to be there, rather than being forced to go by the school.

Ask questions. This one may seem obvious but you may have never done the thing that your being asked to do before so if you don’t understand ask questions. Even if they are stupid and you have been told each day how to do it and you forget. Ask! It’s better to ask for help than to pretend you know what your doing.

Be helpful. If you see that there is something that you could do, instead of waiting to be found something to do start doing the thing that you could easily be getting on with. There were many times I was standing around and then I saw the trollies full of books so I put them away which I think was really appreciated.

Talk to customers. If you are in a business where you deal with customers, talk to them. Ask them how their day was if they need help, help them! Also, if you are asked to use the phone, DON’T PANIC! I was asked to use the phone on the first day and in that moment you need to get rid of your nerves and fears and just say what you need to say. Most of the time the phone went straight to answer phone so I was mostly talking to an answer machine. Just don’t worry about talking to people through the phone, the more you do it the easier it will become.

These are all my tips about work experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I would happily go back any time and work there and I am kind of gutted that I have to go back to school instead of going back to the library. It was so much fun! Anyway, I hope these have helped calm your nerves about work experience if you have not done it. Lots of love; XxFashionCookiexX